Desiring Revolution: Second-Wave Feminism and the Rewriting of American Sexual Thought, 1920 to 1982

This book does so many things well: it traces the intellectual history of ideas about female sexuality in pyschology and social thought, and it then discusses how feminists both challenged and used those ideas to make a feminist sexual revolution. But this important intellectual and cultural history is also incredibly fun to read. The chapter on "sex novels" is particularly innovative, and you'll learn more about the feminist "sex wars" here than anywhere else. Highly recommended!

This is a wonderful book-- for both scholars and general readers. Relatively little has been written (yet) about the history of women's liberation, and Gerhard's analysis of how and why sexuality came to matter to second wave feminism fills an enormous gap; it is sure to become essential reading. Like Dan Horowitz's influential biography of Betty Friedan, this book offers an important intellectual history of second wave feminism-- from early in the 20th century onward, and from Freud to Erica Jong; with a light touch, then, Gerhard is making many insightful points about the methods and sources that historians use, and the relationship between theory and history. And, not the least, the stereotype of feminists as "anti-sex" simply falls apart in the face of this analysis. I teach US history, and my students have loved this smart and engaging book. But my mother in law loved it too!